"Here, East, get down the crib and
find the place."
"O Tommy, Tommy!" said East, proceeding to do as he was bidden, "that it
should ever have come to this! I knew Arthur'd be the ruin of you some
day, and you of me. And now the time's come." And he made a doleful
face.
"I don't know about ruin," answered Tom; "I know that you and I would
have had the sack long ago if it hadn't been for him. And you know it as
well as I."
"Well, we were in a baddish way before he came, I own; but this new
crotchet of his is past a joke."
"Let's give it a trial, Harry; come. You know how often he has been
right and we wrong."
"Now, don't you two be jawing away about young Square-toes," struck in
Gower. "He's no end of a sucking wiseacre, I dare say; but we've no time
to lose, and I've got the fives court at half-past nine."
"I say, Gower," said Tom appealingly, "be a good fellow, and let's try
if we can't get on without the crib."
"What! in this chorus? Why, we shan't get through ten lines."
"I say, Tom," cried East, having hit on a new idea, "don't you remember,
when we were in the upper fourth, and old Momus caught me construing
off the leaf of a crib which I'd torn out and put in my book, and which
would float out on to the floor, he sent me up to be flogged for it?"
"Yes, I remember it very well."
"Well, the Doctor, after he'd flogged me, told me himself that he didn't
flog me for using a translation, but for taking it in to lesson, and
using it there when I hadn't learnt a word before I came in.
Pages:
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347